Conflicting W.H.O. Reports Concerning Antibiotics — What Are We To Believe?

In light of global travel, society is like a dry forest susceptible to devastation. A new strain of bacteria could erupt and lignite the world with a pathogen that is resistant to all known medication.

WHO recently identified 12 ‘priority pathogens’ that are generally not dangerous, but can be deadly if the person infected happens to contract a drug resistant form.

Just last year, a patient in Reno was hospitalized with a condition resistant to all available antimicrobial drugs; she later died.

Ironically, on the same day as the WHO report was released, another news article was released reporting on CMAJ’s suggestion that the Canadian government should consider adopting a program in which the government pays for a list of “essential medicines.”

Other countries have similar programs, and some believe that government intervention could reduce the financial burden on consumers, as well as the perceived health risk of skipping days of medication.

Why is the world’s most powerful and most profitable sector in the world requesting that the government provide drugs for free? The question that begs to be asked is, who is going to benefit the most from this offering?

What about the side effects that these drugs produce? More drugs will be needed for treating the side effects, and with open access and free medication, what health crisis will this influx of drugs create?

Antibiotics are already overused. In the US alone, 80 percent of the antibiotics produced are used in meat and poultry production.

One might think that these antibiotics are used for sick animals, but, on the contrary, the antibiotics are actually used to promote faster growth and prevent disease in crowded or unsanitary conditions.

And, these antibiotics do not die with the animals; they travel. In Consumer Reports tests, “more than two thirds of chicken samples were contaminated with Salmonella and/or Campylobacter, and more than 60 percent of those bacteria were resistant to one or more antibiotics.”

These superbugs can also spread through environmental transmission: through lakes, animals (including feces), people, etc.

Doctors contribute heavily to over-prescription of antibiotics, particularly during cold and flu season. Antibiotics are becoming less effective, and the side effects of antibiotics are implicated in 1 of 5 emergency room visits for bad drug reactions.

There is a desperate need for change in order to treat the core of the problem, rather than careless spending in treating the symptoms of disease. We don’t need more to treat avoidable diseases.

Instead, we need governmental oversight in the abuse of pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and GMO engineering — all affecting the very food that we eat and the water that we drink.

Is putting fluoride into the water system the answer for toxic water supplies, or would we be better off fixing the infrastructure to clean the water systems?

In my estimation, government funding to heal our lands is a much better solution than pumping more money into the pockets of pharmaceutical interests. Our own medical choices have power, too.